Wednesday June 24th

This morning we went to Nicole's friend who has a vacation place by a river. She showed us her house that looked amazing and even took us on a boat ride! We tanned on the deck, kayaked...

On the way back to Sonoma, we stopped at a high school drive thru to get coffees.

In the evening, I went to see a semi-pro baseball game with Nicole. It

Monday June 22nd

After packing all my stuffs, I layed by the pool to enjoyed a last time the sun, and then I had breakfast and helped everyone cleaning around. We were supposed to leave at 11am to avoid traffic, but no one was ready, so we actually didn't leave until 1.30 pm (what a surprise...)

After saying goodbye to everyone, we FINALLY left. But it was too good to be true because 5 minutes after, Rah-Rah and Nicole decided to stop at a cinnamon rolls place to eat something (even if I don't thing anyone was really hungry..). They had a pretty cool map where we could put a color dot where we are from, so I put Geneva and Julien put Antarctica! (we all know he is secretly a penguin so...)

We weren't back on the road for 5 minutes that Nicole had to stop again, this time to see a college campus. She put Rah-Rah on the phone and they both talked, and talked...all we wanted was to go home as soon as possible! The best way to describe how we felt at this moment is to quote what Nikita kept saying: “Please stop, this is torture!”

For lunch we stopped at “In & Out”, a famous place for burgers. I've always heard that it was amazing but I was disappointed. Way far behind Five Guys!

We stopped 5 minutes later because Nikita wanted to buy something and Nicole suddenly realized that the dog wasn't here! We left her at the food place! She completely freaked out, jumped in the van, leaving Nikita at the gas station and drove on the rode...but the van was too big so she got stuck in the middle of the road on the wrong place, with cars waiting on each side. She was swearing and screaming, she took Rah-Rah's car and drove back there where she found the dog eating french fries where we left her! It was scary but also very funny.

Sunday june 21st

I skyped with my parents for an hour this morning, and then chilled by the pool. Mickey and I walked to the nearest gas station to buy some candy and then we stayed by the pool. We played ultimate football once again, and after dinner, I had a nice talk with John (Nicole's sister's husband) about American universities, about different careers...

With a few other people, we walked to a store where we bought cheesecakes and ice cream that we ate while watching “The Ice Age”

Saturday June 20th

After breakfast, we all met behind the hotel to take the famous family pictures... we took about 1 hour for everyone to be ready, but then, the light wasn't perfect so they decided that we had to do it again in the evening. As we all had to keep our hair and makeup nice for the next pictures, we weren't able to go in the pool all day! A lot of us were burned from the past days, so we put umbrellas and had a “shade party”! Then we went on the only “adventure” of this trip: a 45 minutes bike ride. We took some bikes at the hotel, and rode them on the big road. We just stayed on this road and when we started to be tired, we turned around and went back. Of course, we spent the rest of the day by the pool again, and then we played soccer and ultimate football (ultimate fresbee...with a football).

We had to do more pictures, and for another hour, we stayed still and faked smiles. We played volleyball, went in the hot tub and then had a movie night where we watched “how to train a dragon”.

Friday June 19th

When I woke up, no one else was up, so I decided to go for a walk. I was alone on the side of the ocean, with a breath-taking view, it was quiet and so relaxing! Then I helped preparing breakfast, and one and a half hour later than what we planned, we finally ate breakfast-lunch. I basically spent the entire day by the pool, most of the time in the shade because I didn't wanna burn more than I already did. We went back to the ocean, and went to the fitness room for a little bit. Once again it's crazy how out of shape I am!

June 18th

Thursday June 18^th

When I woke up, we all went to another room to have breakfast with all the family. I was kind of uncomfortable because they all know each other and I don't really know what to say or what to do, but I hope it will pass with the time... After a few non-gluten bagels, we went back down and enjoyed the pool. Then, Julien took me swimming in the ocean: first time I swam in the Pacific Ocean! It was freezing! We jumped over the waves and played, but after 15 minutes we couldn't feel our feet anymore, so we went back to the pool and to the hot tub. I played with Viny (Vincent), a 2 years old boy for about an hour and then we had burgers.

The hotel is also a place where people can have weddings, and there was one this afternoon, so we all went on the side and looked at it. The place was really pretty, and Nicole cried when the bride walked in the aisle!

We spent the entire afternoon tanning by the pool and swimming when we were too hot!

I had lots of fun, but when I left, I realized that I burned! I put 50+ sunscreen and even if I stood 2 hours on my back, my belly didn't burn at all. However I stayed on my belly for about 10 minutes and I was completely red!

And guess who we found by the pool! A couple of swiss people from Geneva! What was the chance?!

And to continue on this swiss note, we ate a raclette for dinner! I haven't had a raclette in one year and a half! Even if we ate it and it was 25 degrees outside, I enjoyed it so much!

Wednesday June 17th

We woke up earlier than usually to get our stuff around. Once we were done packing, we put everything in the minivan, and we went to Rah-Rah's house (Nicole's mother). There, we had to help her packing, and she decided to take “some food”...result: we emptied and took the entire fridge and freezer! Nicole made me try one of their organic drink: you take grass, put it in a mixer and drink it! It tastes gross! And then, she gave me “water” that actually was a glass of laxatives! Hopefully I only drank one zip. Instead of leaving at 9.30 as we planned, we left at 11. We stopped at Anthony's house (Nicole's brother), met Lynn (her other sister) and 10 minutes later finally left for the camp Rah-Rah. Each year, Rah-Rah organizes a camp where all the family meets together. This year, she rent apartments on the beach at Pismo Beach, 4.5 hours south of Sonoma, and 3-4 hours north of Los Angeles. We all followed each other on the road, and 4 hours later we stopped to eat at Chipotle. 30 minutes after that, we finally (I feel like I haven't stopped traveling!) arrived at the hotel. I don't think that I've ever been in something so luxurious! There are 3 complexes of hotels, valets came to unload the cars for us, it is 2 minutes from the beach, there are palm trees and flowers everywhere... It's paradise! Our suites are enormous! A kitchen, living room, dining room, 2 big bedrooms, 2 closets, 1 room for laundry, and 2 bathrooms. The bathtub is so big that I could sleep in it! In front of the rooms, there is a patio, and then a big swimming pool. Oh and there is also a barbecue place and place for weddings! We immediately jumped in the pool (warm water hum...) and the hot tub. Then we went to the fitness room where I ran a mile, and we finally went to the beach. There were seals!

This place is incredible!